COUNTERING MILITARY RECRUITMENT
Articles: War Protests: General
CIVIL RESISTANCE
Well-scripted anti-war protest no act
Rebecca Nolan, The Register-Guard
November 19, 2005
These
days, even war protests resemble stage plays, the demonstrators, police
and media all actors faithfully playing their roles.
Friday's performance at the University of Oregon's ROTC office on Agate
Street, and the encore that followed at a recruiting station across
from Churchill High School, went off without a hitch.
The group of about 30 protesters opposed to the Iraq war got to
exercise its freedom of speech. No one was hurt. The media were there.
And the 11 people who wanted to get arrested got arrested.
Act I: The protesters arrived at the ROTC building at 9 a.m. as
planned. They had their props - the signs with photos of injured U.S.
soldiers and maimed Iraqi children, the megaphones, the digital
camcorders, the media packets containing, among other things, a
document titled "Statement of our demonstration's purpose."
They had sent an e-mail to the local media the night before announcing
that "a group of individuals, who are ordinary citizens of
Eugene-Springfield, have organized multiple direct actions of civil
disobedience to occur on Friday, Nov. 18, 2005, targeting government
facilities involved in prosecuting the war in Iraq. ... We fully
recognize we may be arrested, and we are prepared to go to jail."
They had met with police to coordinate the event ahead of time.
Three people walked inside the building, saying they were interested in
ROTC materials. But they weren't really interested. They were staging a
sit-in. Peter Chabarek, a local activist who seemed to be organizing
the protest, called the trio "an advance team," as in, "We sent an
advance team of three people into the building."
The advance team included Eugene residents Ruth Ann Koenig, 64, Fraeda Scholz, 26, and Kyle Roy Yamada, 28.
Act 2: Others stood out front in the fog, holding the signs for drivers
to see. Some taped computer printouts to the glass front door. "We
mourn the enormous suffering caused by this brutal war," the papers
read. "We are outraged."
Around back, more protesters gathered on the wheelchair ramp. Two women
blocked the rear door. Campus police told them they would be arrested.
They were 36-year-old Karla Ruth Cohen and 50-year-old Dorean Schubert,
aka "Doe Tabor," both of Eugene.
Cohen stood next to a bemused but patient campus police lieutenant and
explained why she was there, as fellow demonstrator Amy Pincus Merwin
filmed her statement.
"They train officers," she said of the people inside the ROTC building. "They are part of the war machine."
They were sticking to the script. It had been arranged ahead of time
who would be arrested and who would remain, instead, a "support
person." Still others wore yellow armbands reading "neutral observer."
"We are only allowing people who have been trained in civil disobedience to be arrested," Chabarek said.
Why provoke arrest?
"Gandhi said that the job of the civil resister is to resist and to
provoke a response," he said. "If you're not provoking a response,
you're not doing a good job."
Reporters took notes and cameras rolled.
Act III: Next up were Eugene residents Penny Palmer, 64; and Henry
Franklin Dizney, 79, a veteran of World War II. A charming pair, they
stepped from the wheelchair ramp into the spot in front of the ROTC
back door that Cohen and Schubert recently had vacated.
"For me, it started with my 14-year-old grandson," Palmer said earlier.
"I would just hate for him to go to a war like this. It seems so
needless, so useless and so destructive."
Dizney called the war in Iraq "immoral."
"I'm a veteran and I think it discredits the military," he said. "We're selling these kids down the river at a dollar a pound."
A young man who approached the door looked befuddled when Palmer and
Dizney refused to move. He stood still for a moment before walking
away, around the building to the front door.
A reporter stopped him, looking for comment from the "other side."
"I have a meeting, so I guess it's disrupting my day," he said of the protest.
A man inside the ROTC building opened the front door - still covered
with taped-up printouts - and waved the young man in. "You don't have
to talk," the ROTC man said.
Around 10:30 a.m., four Eugene police officers and a lieutenant
arrived. They ushered Cohen, Schubert, Palmer and Dizney inside to join
the advance team. Through the window, officers could be seen collecting
driver's licenses.
Act IV: "We're moving to the second location," a woman with a clipboard said.
Organizers had withheld the second location until now so the police
couldn't intercept them en route or warn the recruiters that protesters
were coming. Everyone was told to meet at the Army Recruitment Office
at 2075 W. 25th Ave., near Churchill High School.
A smaller group gathered there at 11 a.m. Four people walked inside the
office carrying signs. They blocked the entrance and refused to leave.
Others gathered outside, including 12-year-old Rose Qualtere-Burcher.
"I don't think war is the right answer to this," Rose said earlier
while sitting with her friend, 11-year-old Anya Sadofsky. "I don't
think violence is the answer."
Her father, Dr. Paul Donald Qualtere-Burcher, 43, of Eugene was inside
the recruiting station, along with her 16-year-old brother, Peter.
They were arrested for misdemeanor criminal trespassing when Eugene
police officers arrived a short time later. So were Richard Dunbar
Klopfer Jr. and Jacque Larrance Travis, both 52 and both of Eugene.
Epilogue: All 11 arrested protesters were taken to City Hall, where
they were given citations and released. The organizers had lined up
attorneys before the protest occurred. It remains to be seen whether
they will fight the charges or write a check and move on.
Chabarek planned to tweak the script before the next protest. "Next time, we won't notify the police," he said.
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